Canadian MP Pat Martin (http://patmartin.ndp.ca/) said it best: "There's 30 billion pennies in circulation and every year they were minting a billion more. It was just a no-brainer, slam dunk, that it's a place where we could save some money. They cost more to produce than they are worth, nobody likes them, they have no commercial value."

If you're a super geek there is an interesting report about the inefficiencies in the economy caused by the Canadian penny here: http://www.desjardins.com/en/a_propos... An interesting bit is the following:

"In truth, the 'artificial' demand for small-denomination coins is rising primarily because merchants and financial institutions have to constantly add new coins to the retail distribution system due to a shortage caused not by commercial or economic factors but rather by the fact that consumers do not put their small-denomination coins back into circulation. The hoarded coins do not circulate and are not used for any productive purposes. Moreover, most people cannot be bothered to take the time to count, roll and deposit these coins so that financial institutions can put them back into circulation, no doubt because over the years, the Canadian standard of living has continued to rise, eroding the purchasing power of these coins. If nothing changes, this situation will only be exacerbated in the coming years and decades."

I wanted to have a hidden link on 'Vancouver' in the beginning to this video: http://vimeo.com/7764570 but YouTube won't allow off-site links. Go check it out.